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Lay People’s Knowledge of Mental and Physical Illness

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Promoting Psychological Well-Being in Children and Families

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Abstract

There is a great difference between studying mental and physical illness and further studying psychological and physical health. For a 100 years psychologists studied such things as anxiety, depression and suicide supposing that happiness and adaptation was in some way just ‘not genuinely experiencing’ these powerful negative emotions. However, the rise of positive psychology and the serious acknowledgement of the biopsychosocial model of mental and physical health have changed our perspective for the better. We are both social and biological beings with a unique makeup. To fully understand how we function, and why some survive and thrive while others succumb to pressures, we need to look at all factors that influence our health. This includes the individual’s own perceptions of his or her health/disorder.

Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies.

Leo Tolstoy

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Authors
  1. Adrian Furnham
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  2. Bruce Kirkcaldy
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for the Study of Occupational and Mental Health, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Bruce Kirkcaldy (Director) (Director)

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© 2015 Adrian Furnham and Bruce Kirkcaldy

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Furnham, A., Kirkcaldy, B. (2015). Lay People’s Knowledge of Mental and Physical Illness. In: Kirkcaldy, B. (eds) Promoting Psychological Well-Being in Children and Families. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137479969_2

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